Cuba calls for an end to treaty that created the US base on Guantanamo

CUBA’S foreign minister has called for an end to the treaty imposed on his country that ceded a portion of Guantanamo Bay to the United States.

Bruno Rodriguez said: “The presence of the naval base violates the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Cuba and international law.”

The Cuban government said Sunday marked 122 years since the imposition of the treaty on Guantanamo, that occupies the eastern end of the island.

Mr Rodriguez said: “122 years ago, the imposition of the treaty that ceded 73 miles of Guantanamo Bay to the US government for as long as they needed it, with no termination clause of the agreement, was formalised.”

The minister added: “What right does the US have to occupy Guantanamo, violate our sovereignty and occupy a piece of our territory against the will of our people?”

Political analyst Atilio Boron, for his part, insisted that Guantanamo was not just a military base but also “a symbol of what the US does when no-one is watching.”

Now, US President Donald Trump is “proposing to use it as a repository for ‘illegals’,” he said.

In January, President Trump said he wanted to expand immigrant detention facilities at Guantanamo to hold as many as 30,000 people, although the current capacity at Guantanamo’s low-security migrant operations centre is roughly 2,500.